Gibson was a tennis pioneer

Althea Gibson was born on Aug. 25, 1927, in the small rural community of Silver. Her parents, Annie Bell and Daniel Gibson, and their “8-pound and long” baby girl lived in a four-room cabin that the Gibsons shared with his parents and six of their children.

The times were difficult for her family when Gibson was born.

In a biography on Gibson titled, “Born to Win,” the authors described the three years following the future tennis legend’s birth as hard. Authors Frances Clayton Gray and Yanick Rice Lamb said Gibson’s family could barely make ends meet “after three years of bad weather in a row.”

At the age of three, Gibson moved with her parents to Harlem to live with other family members.

Before taking to the tennis courts, Gibson was known as the “Princess of Paddleball.” Her quickness and power with the small paddle had people wondering if the 12-year-old Gibson could handle a tennis racket as well.

Gibson began hitting tennis balls off walls and at the age of 12, Gibson won a match at the Harlem River Tennis Courts, the first time she stepped on a tennis court.

Gibson caught the eye of tennis coach Fred Johnson and just one year later Gibson entered her first tournament at the New York State Open Championship and won. The year was 1942 and her tennis career was launched.

In 1946, Gibson moved to North Carolina to improve her game at high school there and in 1949, Gibson entered Florida A&M on a tennis scholarship.

After leaving A&M, Gibson worked as a physical education teacher in Missouri.

Gibson continued playing tennis. In 1952, she had risen to number nine in the United States Lawn Tennis Association. Within a year, she had advanced to number seven.

In 1956, Gibson set her sights on the tennis world and soon won the singles and doubles championships at the French Open.

In 1957 and 1958, Gibson was the number one women’s tennis player worldwide. Over those two years, she won two Wimbledon singles titles and two U.S. National singles titles. With the 1957 win at Wimbledon, Gibson became the first African American to win a Wimbledon singles title.

After her win at the U.S. Nationals in 1958, Gibson retired from professional tennis and took on another sport – professional golf. After retiring, Gibson also wrote her autobiography and even recorded an album, “Althea Gibson Sings.”

In 1964, Gibson earned another first – first African American woman to play in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She retired a few years later.

Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971 and four years later, she was appointed as the New Jersey state commissioner of athletics.

In 1977, Gibson threw her hat into the ring to become an Essex County, N.J., senator, but lost to the incumbent Sen. Frank J. Dodd.

Before suffering two aneurysms and a stroke, Gibson worked in various public service positions. She died on Sept. 28, 2003 at the age of 76 in East Orange, N.J.

Gibson has been named to a number of Halls of Fame: in 1994, to the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey; on the 50th anniversary of Gibson’s victory at the 1957 U.S. Championships, to the U.S. Open Court of Champions, and in 2009, to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Six years after her death, the city of Wilmington, N.C., named its new community tennis complex the Althea Gibson Tennis Center.

This spring, the Macedonia Community Development Corporation will name a sports complex on Commerce Street in Manning, as the “Althea Gibson Community Resource Center.”

“The main reason we’re naming the complex after Gibson is because she was a great community activist,” said the Rev. Eddie Lesaine with the MCDC. “She was also an outstanding humanitarian.”

On the inside front cover of her biography, the authors included a quote from Gibson: “I knew that I was an unusual, talented girl through the grace of God. I didn’t need to prove that to myself. I only wanted to prove it to my opponents.”

Lesaine said a ceremony would be held in Gibson’s honor prior to the opening of the center that will bare her name.